Dou Jiang — Soy Milk and the Breakfast Table

Origin

Soy milk is a food of China, made there for at least two thousand years, and the coagulation of soy milk into tofu, which belongs to the same craft, is traditionally placed in the Han dynasty. Dou jiang (豆浆) is carried by the breakfast stalls and small shops of the whole country, from the north to the Jiangnan region, where it is drunk beside fried dough sticks, flatbreads and steamed buns. The savoury bowl, xian dou jiang (咸豆浆), is above all a dish of Shanghai and the lower Yangtze, as Fuchsia Dunlop describes the region's breakfasts in Land of Fish and Rice.

Description

Dou jiang (豆浆) is freshly made soy milk, the soybean (Glycine max) soaked overnight, ground with water, strained through cloth and simmered. It is served hot or cold, sweet or savoury. The savoury version, xian dou jiang (咸豆浆), belongs particularly to Shanghai and the lower Yangtze: hot soy milk poured over black vinegar in the bowl, where it sets in soft curds, and topped with dried shrimp, pieces of you tiao, preserved mustard greens and chilli oil.

III

The Thread

—Japanese tofu begins exactly as dou jiang does, with soaked soybeans ground, strained and heated into soy milk, and then carries the process on to coagulation and pressing. The Chinese bowl stops at the liquid, or coagulates it only loosely in the bowl with vinegar, where Japanese practice sets it into a block for cutting. Japanese

—Like dou jiang, it is a plant milk made by soaking, grinding and straining through cloth, then served as a refreshing drink. The Spanish version is made from almonds, sweetened and served chilled, whereas the Chinese drink is made from soybeans and is as often hot and savoury as sweet. Spanish

—Indonesian soy milk is made from the same soaked, ground and strained beans and is drunk fresh from street vendors, often lightly sweetened. It shares the principle of a fresh bean milk heated through, but it is not set with vinegar or garnished into a savoury breakfast bowl as in Shanghai. Indonesian

Flavour Context

Sweet dou jiang is clean, lightly beany and gently sweet, and it is drunk with fried dough sticks (you tiao), sesame flatbreads and steamed buns, whose richness and crispness it softens. Xian dou jiang is savoury and sharp, with the tang of black vinegar, the salt of dried shrimp and preserved mustard greens, and the heat of chilli oil. The vinegar curdles the hot milk into soft clouds, and the you tiao, torn into pieces on top, supplies crunch against that softness.

V · Quality Hierarchy

Soybeans of the current year, soaked overnight and ground fresh to order, the milk strained… Soy milk made on the premises each morning from soaked whole beans, strained and simmered…

VI · Sensory Tests

sight: As the milk heats, a thick foam rises and climbs the pot, and the cook watches it closely and…

VII · Where the dish lives or dies

The milk must be brought fully to the boil and held there, stirring, for several minutes, with the heat lowered as the foam rises so…

Pillars V — VII

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